Our History

Morris Wood & Co

Morris Wood & Co was established by Philip Wood and Dorothy Morris in 1976. Starting in London they quickly established a base in Wivenhoe on the outskirts of Colchester.

In 1984 the firm moved into the old Manse in Wivenhoe High Street. This unusual building was in fact a folly in the shape of a greek temple built originally in the grounds of Wivenhoe Hall. The Manse remained the home of the firm until October 2003 when it moved to brand new modern offices at Lodge Business Park in Langham.

Peter Disney & Co

Peter Disney & Co was established in 1984 by Peter Disney. Peter had qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1981 having served his articles with Butt Cozens & Co in Colchester.

Peter then spent the next two years working for Pannell Kerr Forster(now PKF) in their London, Ipswich and Colchester offices and also completing secondments to the Audit Commission and Fraud Squad . He was given the opportunity to run the small Harwich office and he decided that working with small businesses was what he really wanted to do. He finally set up his own practice serving small and medium sized businesses working initially from home.

Wood & Disney

The two practices merged on 1st November 1987 to form Morris Wood & Disney. Dorothy Morris retired in 1987 and four years later the firm dropped the name Morris from it's name and became Wood & Disney which it has retained today. Philip Wood retired in April 2001.

Profit Advisors

Peter Disney had always had an interest in what makes a successful business and in 1992 had bought in a Management Consulting tool from the USA and trialled it on a client. He decided that he could create something better and so developed 'Question Master', on the basis that there are no great answers but there are many great questions which really make a business owner think about their business. Over 1000 questions divided into 14 modules so that they could be used one at a time cost effectively for small businesses.

As a result of his work with Question Master he was invited in 1997 by Mark Lloydbottom of Practice Track to join him and a few other accountants in visiting the Institute of Profitability Advisors in Chicago. When they returned the four main firms including Wood & Disney formed the Association of Profit Advisers in the UK.

Between 1998 and 2002 Peter created an Online Business Advisory Website called Plus4Business. He went on to develop his own Recession Busting Program in 2008